Last week, Cohort 12 of 'Resilient Chemistry: Feedstock to Function' CDT successfully presented their project proposals to the dragons at the annual event, which took place from 18-19th June 2026 at the Marriott's Breadsall Priory, Derbyshire, UK.

As part of the first year CDT training, the students were tasked with developing a detailed project and pitching their project proposal to a panel of ‘dragons’ - comprising a mixed audience of academics from both University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University and industrial partners (AstraZeneca, Croda, Lubrizol, Queens University Belfast, Scientific Update, and Unilever) and fellow CDT students from other cohorts. The ‘dragons’ challenged our students presentations asking a wider range of insightful questions and providing helpful feedback and suggestions for their projects going forward.

During Day 2, the first-year students presented their group projects. The group projects gave them the opportunity to work as a multidisciplinary team to produce a published output and present at Dragons Den. The ‘dragons’ were tasked with challenging their presentations and asking question to understand and provide feedback on their ability to work as part of a team and the published work they were working towards.

A huge congratulations to Cohort 12 for their amazing project pitches.

A big thank you to everyone that attended and made the event another huge success for the CDT. We look forward to seeing you again next year!

Pictured are the Cohort 12 CDT students at Dragons Den 2026